Sobre la libertad y la igualdad

We present in this volume a selection of essays in which Isaiah Berlin addresses the two central concepts of political theory: liberty and equality. The first of the essays, "Two concepts of freedom", is one of the most famous and controversial political writings of the 20th century. This is the author's inaugural lecture as Chichele Professor of Social and Political Theory at Oxford University, which was delivered and published (in a longer, retouched version) in 1958. Here we offer the reader what Isaiah Berlin actually said in that occasion, since the conference has its origin in this text: a condensed version prepared to be read in public, and that expresses the author's ideas in a simpler and more direct way than his more leisurely writings. That is why it is published here, in the hope and belief that it will illuminate interpreters of Berlin's classic description of his pluralistic liberalism. The work is complemented with another essay on the same subject, "Liberty", and with the main writing in which the author specifically addressed the other great concept of political theory: "Equality".